


If you run, I will follow you

by cantheysuffer



Series: From Kings to Criminals [1]
Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bandits & Outlaws, First Kiss, Happy Ending, Loki Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-30
Updated: 2014-11-30
Packaged: 2018-02-27 12:43:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2693420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cantheysuffer/pseuds/cantheysuffer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was only ever room for one on the throne of Asgard. Crowned king after Odin falls into the Odinsleep, Loki steals away to Midgard to visit his exiled brother with a plea: run away together. Become outlaw princes of the nine realms. All they ever needed was each other anyways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If you run, I will follow you

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot of feelings and somehow they keep not turning into porn :( Maybe next time!
> 
> Thor and Loki's mindsets are inspired by some [breathtaking](http://notyourtargetaudience.tumblr.com/post/92695916912/thorkizilla-thor-liveblog-x-one-of-the) [meta](http://notyourtargetaudience.tumblr.com/post/92690082872/thorkizilla-thor-liveblog-x-one-of-the) written by tumblr user thorkizilla.

Loki licks his lips. They are dry and chapped, but this comes to no surprise. Midgard is a barren wasteland and Thor is already worse for wear for being here. 

The mighty thunder god looks out of place as a prisoner in S.H.I.E.L.D's fragile white room, his shoulders slumped under the weight of his own mental burden. Thor is barely the ghost of the man Loki calls brother, even though he is not. 

Loki is Laufey's son. 

“The Odinsleep has overcome father,” Loki says, responding to the sting in his own mind with retribution. He does not wish to harm Thor though, he recalls in due time. 

Loki frowns, both at his own misstep and for the next one he cannot prevent. “The burden of the throne is now mine.” 

Thor's blue eyes brighten, burnishing with a damnable hope. “Pardon me brother, so that I might return to Asgard. I wish to go home.” 

“No,” Loki says, too quickly. 

Thor's face crumples in disbelief, but Loki can withstand it for the end he imagines is just out of reach. There is nothing for Thor in Asgard. There is nothing for them there. 

“Do you trust me, brother?” The words are acrid on Loki's tongue, but Loki lives in lies. He ought to be at peace with them by now. He smiles to dispel any dissatisfaction that might linger on his face. 

“Of course,” Thor says, voice burgeoning with its usual booming force. 

Loki's smile is real this time. “Follow me,” he says.

The door to the white room opens just as Thor can feel one of Loki's illusions settling onto the surface of his skin. 

Thor trails after Loki out of the room, moving confidently under the guise. Although he is familiar with Loki's seidr, never before have they used it for such illicit purposes. 

But who are the people of Midgard to imprison Thor, Prince of... and so the thought trails off in Thor's mind. Banished men surely have no titles and they likely cannot call claim to a home either. 

Banished men are forever damned to be between places, caught in the gaps between their old lives and the new ones that are not really theirs. 

Thor follows Loki with an unrepentant grimace, face set in a stern line better reserved for following his brother into Hel. 

They pass by Mjolnir, still embedded in the rock where Thor could not lift her from. Loki could not either, though Thor does not need to know this. Loki's eyes show no lost love for the hammer, but pain flickers across Thor's face in the form of doubt. 

“Thor,” Loki says softly. “Father put Mjolnir here to shame you.”

“No,” Thor is quick to answer, doubt churning to anger. 

“The hammer is meant to be within your reach, but you cannot lift it. What more could be meant than an eternal reminder that you will waste away when the gods do not?” Loki says, pausing briefly. His eyes cast downward. “When I do not.” 

Thor's lifespan has been irrevocably shortened. It is a cruel twist of fate that Loki will live out immortality as a frost giant, bitter and alone, even if he does not return to Jotunheim. The curse of monsters is his. 

“We will find a way to end this exile. You are king of Asgard-” Thor says, only to be cut off by Loki. 

“For how long? Until Odin wakes? What of you then?” Loki interrupts, voice rising. 

“I will manage,” Thor says confidently.

“Then what of me?” Loki snaps. If it is selfishness or a true mastery over the situation that makes Loki turn to this, he cannot say. He sees quickly that he has Thor though, for the exiled god pauses. 

“Would you see my exile alongside yours when Odin retakes his throne?” Loki goes on. “Would you watch _me_ die mortal?”

Thor turns away, fists clenching and releasing in an anger he knows not what to do with. “Either way, you shall watch me die mortal on Midgard,” Thor says, and it is truly not selfish, for he knows how this would destroy Loki. They both know. 

“I do not intend to,” Loki says, taking a step towards Thor. “You said you trusted me and I will find a way to save you.”

“No.” Thor shakes his head. “If you cannot end my exile without garnering your own, it would be equally unwise to attempt to help me by other means.” Thor's voice is wrought with frustration and concern. Though he has no desire to die alone on Midgard, he will do it to spare Loki any ill will.  
“I must return to my imprisonment.”

“No,” Loki blurts out. “If you leave now, we can leave together.”

“What are you saying?” Thor frowns. 

“Run away with me.” Loki's voice is reckless, the smile on his face equally so. “Mother can rule Asgard in father's stead. When Odin awakens he will retake the throne.”

“Run to where?” Thor scoffs, his own voice mangled by haughty disbelief.

“We could live between the realms. If we wait until Odin wakes we will both be punished, but now, with my seidr, we have a head start. We can go anywhere. Be anyone,” Loki says quickly, face stricken with a beautiful wanderlust. “And it will not matter because we will be together.”

“This is not some childhood adventure where we can return to the palace when it becomes too cold or we run out of food. We would be in breach of Asgard law. We would be outlaws, fugitives, Loki!” Thor dismisses him just as fast. 

“An improvement on your current situation, surely. Midgard is practically your cell. We would know no cage,” Loki tells him, bright eyes flashing. “The universe would be ours. Criminals, yes, but free.”

“Asgard is ours,” Thor insists. “We were born to be kings.”

“Yours,” Loki corrects him. “It was only ever meant for one king.” Certainly not for him, though Thor is unaware of Loki's frost giant heritage. Best to keep it that way. 

“Here, or on Asgard, it matters not,” Loki tries to reason. “There was never enough room for the both of us. At most, I am a placeholder.” The weight of the crown has yet to go to Loki's head, for he is still haunted by the knowledge that Thor was about to be crowned king before he had been exiled. Loki has not yet banished that particular ghost. He is the rightful king of Asgard by default, not design. His illegitimacy gives him pause. 

Thor stares at Loki, eyebrows furrowing fiercely as he attempts to work through the conundrum before them. “We were both born to be kings,” Thor mutters gravely. 

“So we were told,” Loki begins flatly, but his voice rises in due time. “We were raised to be kings. Shaped to a mould that fit the throne. A throne that sits only one, as we very well saw on your coronation day. Why would they tell us that we were both born to sit there?” Loki's jaw clenches. “Why would they do this to me?” he practically snarls. Even if Thor is banished, even if Loki is the king of Asgard, these are but temporary steps off the paths of their immortal lives. 

Thor frowns deeply. “I am sorry, brother,” he says, drawing Loki into a one armed hug and patting him on the back. 

“There is nothing but empty lies and false expectations on the throne for me,” Loki says coldly. 

“Perhaps I am not the only one trapped,” Thor replies. 

“How observant,” Loki mutters, meaning to be glib, but coming off shrewd and calculated instead. 

Thor runs his hand down Loki's back affectionately, not deterred by his brother's bite. 

“I only warm your throne, should you not die mortal while you wait for Odin to wake,” Loki says, and oh how the words tumble out with all the bitterness of such a realization. “My efforts would be better spent sneaking you Idun's apples of immortality than releasing you from your bondage.”

“And what of your bondage?” Thor asks. 

“What of it?” Loki snaps, drawing away from the warm pressure of Thor's arm. 

“You speak the truth. There is but one throne,” Thor presses. 

“Only words spun from a silver tongue that would see you exiled permanently because I cannot imagine an outcome where this ends well for me, tarnishing your destiny in recompense,” Loki says, eyes darting to the side. 

“A silver tongue that speaks the truth,” Thor says earnestly. 

“An impossible declaration,” Loki says bitterly, not meeting Thor's gaze. 

“Where has this self-doubt come from, brother?” Thor asks. 

Loki just barely avoids cringing at the familial title. “It has always been there, beneath my skin, in my blood,” Loki says flatly while staring at his palm. A sorcerer even as he is, Loki does not yet know how to remove the Aesir flesh without another frost giant or the casket. “Merely hidden by illusion.”

“No,” Thor says forcefully. He grabs Loki around his nape in a reflexive affectionate gesture. “I see the wisdom of your words.”

“You do not see me at all,” Loki snarls, stiffening under his brother's grasp. In the blink of an eye he shifts from morose to feral. “Let me go.” 

“No.” Thor shakes his head. “I will not lose you to the throne Loki, no matter which of us it is that sits on it.” 

“Let me go,” Loki hisses frantically. 

He shoves at Thor, which only results in Thor swinging his free arm around Loki's back and forcing him to stay. 

“Forget I came here. Forget my words,” Loki almost pleads, voice cracking. Trapped in Thor's embrace, Loki cannot evade the memory of Thor's declaration to kill all the frost giants. Thor's remembered words come with an accompanying visceral panic. 

“I will not,” Thor says defiantly.

“Then I shall make you,” Loki threatens desperately. “Your mortal mind is fragile.”

“And I will refuse to forget your agony brother, until the moment you break me,” Thor promises in a heated whisper as he brings his lips to Loki's hair. “And thereafter as well, if it is in my power to refuse.”

“I was wrong to come here, wrong to come to you,” Loki bristles. In Thor's every affectionate gesture Loki sees only the impending threat of what is to come. 

“No, brother, I am glad you came,” Thor whispers back fiercely into Loki's hair. 

Loki tenses. For a liar, there is nothing comforting in the truth, but Loki can see no clearer path to get away from Thor. Thor may try to kill him, but at least Thor will cease his ignorant professions of familial love that hurt more than Loki could have ever imagined. “That is precisely why I should not have come. I am not your brother,” Loki says. 

“What?” Thor draws back enough to search Loki's face. “Why would you say such a thing?”

“Odin is not my father. Frigga is not my mother.” Loki keeps his face carefully still as he speaks. 

Thor stares at Loki, jaw clenched and eyebrows tightening. “But were you not raised by them?” Thor says eventually. “We were raised together Loki. You are my brother.” 

“And that might matter, should my blood be Aesir, but it is not.” Loki pauses, drawing on reserves of will as he braces himself. “I am Laufey's son.”

“Laufey?” Thor's voice is thunderous in his surprise. “Where did you hear such things?” Thor demands. 

Mortal, Thor should barely be able to leave a scratch on Loki, but the fear of thunder is so ingrained in Loki's very being that logic is lost on the sorcerer. He fails to realize that Thor has not hit him yet. The thunderer has not even moved. 

“Odin told me. Frigga knew,” Loki's voice rises in delirious concern. “I am not your brother. I am your usurper king.” How quickly the venomous words unravel with Loki's ever mounting self-hatred. 

“No,” Thor says, shaking his head. “Not a usurper.” Thor's grip tightens on the nape of Loki's neck. “They knew and they raised you. Mother knew when she gave you the throne.” 

Loki stares at Thor blankly, barely able to recognize even the sensation of Thor's fingers digging into his neck. 

“You are my brother,” Thor insists. “The rightful king of Asgard.” 

Thor releases Loki, sinking down on one knee. He takes Loki's left hand in his right and holds it close to his chest. “My king.” 

Loki's eyes go wide. “No,” he shudders at the inverted perversion of Thor on the ground in front of him. “No no no no.”

Thor rises, if only to abate his brother's unexpected panic. He clasps Loki in another hug and this time Loki lets him do it. 

Loki buries his face into Thor's neck. “I only ever wanted to be your equal,” he whispers into the rumpled fabric of Thor's shirt. 

“You have always been my equal,” Thor assures him. He hugs tighter with his right arm and strokes Loki's hair with his left. 

“I was born a monster,” Loki whispers back coldly. 

Thor clears his throat, burdened by his own blind hatred of the frost giants. “I would take it all back, if I could,” Thor says slowly, not bothering to clarify the subject. There is no way that Loki is not thinking of Thor's warmongering. 

“I-” Loki nuzzles his face into Thor's shoulder to avoid speaking. He does not know that Thor would take it back or what he might do now with such blasphemous knowledge of Loki's true parentage. 

“The throne suits you ill, brother. Not because you are not Aesir, but because there is only space for one,” Thor says firmly. “You bare the poison that would have been mine had I been crowned king.”

“And you would have bared it well,” Loki mutters. 

“What is baring poison well?” Thor's scoff is hollow and bitter. The usual cheer from his booming voice is drained. “You were right. There is nothing for us in Asgard.” 

Loki raises his hand to dare and look Thor in the eye. “I only said such a thing because I wanted you to run away with me.”

“Then we have that in common, as that is why I repeat it now,” Thor says with a forced smile. 

“You cannot be serious.” Loki shakes his head. 

“Never more so,” Thor assures him. 

“Where would we go?” Loki says with a look of disbelief on his face, far softer than that which Thor harboured not long before. 

“Anywhere. You have your seidr. It would not matter,” Thor says. He slips his hands down to hold Loki's in his own. “I trust you, brother.”

“I am not your brother.” Loki's voice falters as he speaks. 

“My brother in arms. My brother raised. Blood matters not. Race matters not. You are my brother, Loki, as you have always been,” Thor replies earnestly.

Loki worries his bottom lip. “Are we really doing this?” he asks, glancing back at Mjolnir stuck in the rock. Mjolnir, who they will leave behind on Midgard, as they literally turn their backs on Thor's salvation. On his immortality.

“Yes,” Thor says firmly. “You will not be king of Asgard, but exile cannot take your past from you. We will be always be princes.” He cracks a smile. “Renegade princes of the nine realms.” 

“Fugitive royalty,” Loki half laughs. “This is a terrible idea.”

“How could it be?” Thor winks to tease. “It was yours.” 

“They will hunt us down,” Loki warns. 

“Let them try,” Thor says. 

“You are but mortal.” Loki rolls his eyes. “You could not best even a maid from our palace in your current state.”

“Then it is good I have my brother to protect me.” Thor bumps Loki's shoulder with his own affectionately. “At least until you find a way to return my powers.”

“Thor...” Loki frowns. “I might not be able to. I certainly doubt I can ever return Mjolnir to you.” 

“Then no matter,” Thor assures him. “It was only a passing thought. I do not require them.” 

“You should not have to-”

“Loki,” Thor interrupts him with a stern look. “It is fine. I do not require them when I have you.”

Loki frowns in response. 

“I promise. Now come, if you truly mean to abdicate I feel it is only proper that we have some sort of de-coronation ceremony, on your behalf,” Thor says. 

“On the run, perhaps,” Loki says quickly. “It would be wise if we were to leave Midgard in haste. Although...” Loki pauses, eyes flashing in jest. “How about that kiss?” 

Thor grabs Loki around the neck like he has so many times before, but this time he kisses Loki directly on the lips. 

Loki's lips part in a little gasp and Thor's tongue slips into his mouth. In another second Loki is kissing Thor back fiercely, hands tangling in his brother's hair. 

“How long?” Loki asks between wet kisses.

“Always,” Thor assures him. 

Loki pulls back for just long enough to grumble, “and you did not think to let me know before?” 

“I did not want to tarnish your honour,” Thor says reverently.

“Oh? Not such a concern now that I am king?” Loki scoffs. 

“Not such a concern because I realize nothing else matters,” Thor says seriously, disentangling himself from Loki for long enough to speak properly. “I will miss mother, and father, and Mjolnir, and my friends, but I could never bare to lose you. I would have realized it eventually. Too late.”

“Well, that is no longer something to be concerned about,” Loki says, not quite believing his own words. The hope in them is completely foreign. 

“I know,” Thor says, kissing Loki forcefully. 

In but another minute Thor pulls away from Loki's lips enough to murmur against them hotly, “you know, I may have the perfect idea for that de-coronation ceremony of yours.” 

“Abdication,” Loki mutters back. “What, want to defile me on the throne?”

Thor's lips freeze against Loki's. “Well, that was not what I was about to suggest.” He bursts out laughing. “But now that you mention it...” 

“Odin will be asleep for a while yet,” Loki says with a smirk. “We might have some time.”

**Author's Note:**

> I turned this into a series because I may want to come back and write random scenes from Thor and Loki running away to explore the universe together. 
> 
> Fic title from "The Chase" by Kill Hannah.


End file.
